For a moment, Kyle Tucker worried he had the score wrong.
The line drive he snuck through the middle of the infield should have been enough to secure the walk-off victory, giving Dalton Rushing and Shohei Ohtani plenty of time to cross the plate. But as he rounded first, the cheers had only moderately swelled.
Tucker slowed and turned back toward the base, a subdued reaction even from him.
Then came the second surge from the crowd, as Ohtani slid across home plate and the Dodgers spilled from their dugout.
“I was like, ‘OK, sweet, this is sick,’” Tucker said after the Dodgers’ 5-4 victory.
Freddie Freeman reached Tucker first, enveloping him in a hug.
“That was a huge moment right there,” Tucker said.
Just as the ninth inning built to that moment, with a pair of walks and an RBI double from Ohtani, Tucker’s own performance had been building over the past week.
After his slow start at the plate, manager Dave Roberts moved Tucker down from the No. 2 spot in the batting order.
“Moving him allowed the game to come to him a little bit slower,” Roberts said. “And I think that has been a benefit, I do.”
Tucker hit doubles in three of the next four games, and was robbed of at least another extra-base hit, if not a home run, by Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki over the weekend.
“Hit the ball decently well, just didn’t get knocks on it,” Tucker said. “That happens sometimes. There’s some good defenders in this league. Had a couple barrels tonight. I was just able to get that last one there.”
It was the Dodgers’ last shot to make up for the seven-inning offensive lull that followed Teoscar Hernández’s two-run single in the first inning.
“We just really didn’t threaten or create any opportunities,” Roberts said.
The Marlins (13-16) pulled ahead against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had his shortest outing of the season.
In five innings, he allowed four runs (three earned). He issued four walks, doubling his previous season high, and was at 87 pitches when Alex Vesia relieved him.
Vesia and Tanner Scott, both high-leverage arms, each threw hitless innings, buying time for their offense to mount a comeback. But the Dodgers (20-9) squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh inning, stranding all three runners.
Roberts called in Edgardo Henriquez next, and he retired the side. Left-hander Jake Eder then faced the minimum in the ninth thanks to an inning-ending double play, setting himself up for his first major-league win.
Kyle Tucker hits a two-run single in the ninth inning to lift the Dodgers to a 5-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“They did a fantastic job,” Roberts said. “And we needed every bit of it.”
In the ninth, Ohtani’s RBI double into the right-field corner cut the Marlins’ lead to one run.
After Marlins closer Pete Fairbanks intentionally walked Freeman after a 3-0 count, he left the game with a thumb injury.
Right-hander Tyler Phillips replaced Fairbanks and struck out catcher Will Smith, who returned to the lineup after sitting out for two games with back tightness.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Tucker fouled off the first splitter he saw, at the bottom of the strike zone. He was on time for the second in almost the same spot.
“Did he smile?” Roberts quipped after Tucker’s postgame interview.
Even-keel Tucker actually did.
“It was great,” Roberts said. “He needed it. He needed a win.”
Díaz on the mend after surgery 
Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz, center, speaks to reporters in the dugout before a game between the Dodgers and Miami Marlins at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz said he’s known about the loose bodies in his right elbow — five fragments of bone or cartilage that were removed in an operation Wednesday — since 2012, his first year of pro ball.
Last week in Colorado was the first time it affected him. He gave up three runs without recording an out on April 19. And the next day, he told the team his arm felt “weird.”
On Monday, he described the feeling as “tired and tight.”
Before his arm started giving him problems, Díaz was unavailable for four straight games because of fatigue in his knee. His legs felt “good” in Colorado, Díaz said.
Results from an MRI scan suggested that the loose bodies in his elbow were to blame for the discomfort in his arm. Díaz said he was confident the operation would resolve the problem.
“The tightness and the soreness was where the loose body was,” Díaz said. “So that’s why we ended up getting the surgery because it was in the same spot I’ve always had them.”
He’s hoping to return after the All-Star break. So, the Dodgers will have to come up with an alternate ninth-inning plan for the next two-and-a-half months.
“That sucks to miss the first half with the team,” Díaz said. “I’m new with this team. But that’s something I can’t control. Everyone here is supporting me. All of my teammates they’re supporting me, they’re happy that I’m doing way better than before. They just can’t wait to see me on the mound in the second half.
“They say, take your time, we need you in October. But I want to come back as soon as possible and help this team to win games.”
Díaz is still waiting to have his stitches removed, but he expects to start playing catch in a couple weeks.
“My arm is feeling way better than it did on Sunday,” he said. “That’s a good sign. Right now, just a couple days after surgery, I can move my arm really good. My range of motion is coming back to normal. So that’s something I like, and just get stronger and be ready for the second half.”
